Hate speech, root cause of violence in Nigeria, Sen Abdullahi says

The sponsor of the controversial hate speech bill and senator representing Niger North, Sabi Abdullahi has claimed that hate speech remained the root cause of almost all violence in Nigeria.

He stated this when he spoke on a Channels TV programme on Tuesday, adding that the hate speech bill if passed into law, would take care of violence in Nigeria.

The hate speech bill proposes among other things, death penalty for anyone who is guilty of hate speech that leads to another’s death.

Abdullahi had following the condemnation the bill had received from Nigerians, said the portion of the bill that talked about death penalty, would be amended.

Justifying the reason for introducing the controversial bill on Tuesday, he said, “From what I have studied, both from a lot of scholars that have gone on the subject of violence in the country, there is a conclusion that almost all the violence is preceded by hate speech.

“Yes there may be a crisis between groups, but what will lead to violence is that somebody must have said something that is inciting to violence and that is how people who are innocent will fall victims, losing their lives and livelihood for no just cause because somebody somewhere is irresponsible enough to incite other people to that violence.

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“What is the cause of the violence? Hate speech is at the root of it. When we talk about hate speech, the issue of incitement comes in.”

He added, “The beauty of democracy is that we are able to engage, have a conversation and talk through the issue whether good or bad and at the end of the day, if there is a consensus there will be room for action.”

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